anybody. we went to detroit at that ti. we sat in the front pew. and the minister would not take his eyes offf my mother. and as we were coming out another the sermon, he whispered in her ear. and a weelar we moved to o of the apartment buildings. he was a rich man. he had large church, owned real estate, she serviced him for maybe tuesdaynd thursday for about a year and a half until he went to natiol baptist convention where he was running for the presidency and hit his head and died. servicing ministers is not that dangerous they continued but it was dangerous. why write a memoir or write an aubiography? my life has been a long

journey. in the beginning my sister and i essentially lived on the streets of parts of our lives. my sister was a year and a half younger one child of 14 another is 16 and other at 1 by the time she was 27 she has six children and never married and five fathers for the six children saw her life for the most part was in a very difficult situation. stack and so i left detroit collocate to chicago to live with a stranger. that lasted about six months. i finished high school. ended up going to join a magazine sellingroup that aveled across illinois into misery, sellinmagazines merchants trying to stay alive.

fast-forward, i couldn't make a living at the. i got very ill and ended up in the military. the unit states army. i was trying to join the reserves but they weren't taking any reserves. and thought into going into the regular army. now why ias interesting? well, by that time i was reading. and what saved my life, brothers and sisters, what saved my life was basic late art. literature. richard wright just slightly in the face, wakeup, negro. all right? i begin to question the world a little bit differently. and i was listening to a trumpet player by the name of louis armstrong. and louis armstrong as most of you know was the baddest trumpet player in the world. bar none. i didn't particularly care for louis armstrong's mattern -ism. data came along in a you genius by the name of miles

davis. miles davis was tall, black, clean, all the time. and played a trumpet and a way that women gravitated to miles davis. so essentially i decided that i'm going to play the trumpet. so i went to the middle school that i was going tat the time and i asked the bandleader, can i play trumpet. i was 6-foot one, 131 pounds. i was like a walking skeleton. the guy said you don't have any wind in you know, you can't play trumpet. so i was walking home dejected and passed the poor man's been. you know the poor man's bank, right? pawnshop your upon shop at the report that i walked in there, the man behind e counter said what's the cheap untrained cheapest trumpetf the. isa $33. $33?

i had this determination in my eyes. i said what i would do$ i will say that trumpet for $3 down and a dollar a wee and i will teach you how to play the trumpet for that dollar a week. deal. i ran hom got my money and came back the same night as starting point drop in. of course, the rest is i became first trumpet when i went back to school in the fall. the music and literature. music and literature. [applause] >> so aren't sav my life. and as a movie and i began to really understand the importance of art. d as a result of that, i began to really think differently. i graduated. and this is the first 21 years, and a 21 years as you know by the time your your life is almost time for the most are. by 21 it definitely is framed. and so for me i sought answers.

1974 i became haki madhubuti. so i started an artful response, penetrating and redefining culture by supremacy in nationalism. celebrity had, money money,, coorate greed, and a compromise leadership. our leadership. black and whi, the prostitutes themselves in the name of jesus like used raz blade to justify their lives of cowardicend corrupt lifestyles. and to all my life i've been trying to move toward a level of how do you be a good man. how do you make something, bring you back into the world and a much better place? and so for me, wting became the answer. i started writing while was in high school. and as i moved into the military, at that time the military was the motto was hurry

up and wait. i waited with books. i write about that in "yellow black." and i write about my mother. her name was ming. there is one section o maxine. once i aidentally walked in on my mother and a customer havin back. she was covered by hiq body. i add an early age knew that she was working. i saw no enjoyment in her eyes. curfew cries. in the room i showed my sister where i was always instructed to when she was working. i consumed black literature and dreamed of better days. i soon realized that was also an empowering tool for people, women who was le professional athletes have less than 10 year window to make it or find another trade. my mother, noin her 34th year, four years on the other side of men lining up for favors and six years into the bottle

and you ended up cleaning houses for white folks on weekends, and enng in cries of lost life. seen her like that for my young heart a part. flawed my perception of the world anhelp to determine my decision and lifestyle. i never drank alcohol,iquor, never been high, never smoked. i dorunkenness as a weakness. without knowing it, at 14 i was searching for a healthy lifestyle and eventually i was defined in the literature and the music i consumed. i am somewhat an anomaly. i am a geek and. at the runs were me i am not going to chase the. had time into this health thing, but also i am into blind peopl love blind people. i love blind people. [applause] >> so what we try to do in

chicago is to build, and we have built the institutions. we have for schools. the barber sizemore academy, the academy andew concepts go. and we service over 1000 black children today. recalled the african center of education and my wife has been primary in this endeavor. and so in 1967, found by the size of this table of your for $40 in the mcgrath machine. and we started doing these chapbook and they come to chicago, we don't have a block in chicago. in the middle of the black community. [applause] >> and so, when we come to schombg we see beauty or. we see art. we see ourselves are. when you come to third world pressure you come to our schools use you thinking. what we do at two half usual, we teach these children to love

themselves, to love themselves. and then we live at love with knowledge about themsves as they come through our program. today, we started in 1959 in terms of our schools. and we have young people all over the country have come througuniversities and colleges and they'll lawyers and doctors and architects and politicians and so forth. why? because my wife and i., and others, decided we would dedicate our lives to our people. to ourselves. i am a poor writer, all right. so as a writer come as a poet, as the man who loves humanity, loves people, we realized qui early, my wife and i and oers that essentially we can do what we want to dl our people, we did not come into this world as negative we did not come into the world as beggars. somewhere ong the way we lost our way. atlanticist fusion is so important. we look at any people who control their own cultural imperatives about the health replications themselvs, can i

get an all right on that? that's what were trying to do in chicago. and what really will be up at 13 years old, i was selling magazines on the southside of chicago. i sold ery thing trying to stay alive. in 1955, emmett till was murded. do you remember that? somebody's going to read a section on that quickly. 1955. killers are right early for black boys and men who did not know or appreciate their place in mississippi. emmett till, a chicago boy not much older than me, join the earth and our end session on august 1955 as a resultof one the most brutal lynchings ever corded. it was rumored that emmett quote whistled and increctly look at a whit woman. her menfolk still in the heat of the mississippi night and its young life. this was not just a killing. it was a ritual.

a lesson for black boys and men. this was a repositioning of bounries. the putting of hands on a boy by men who came in numbers and still brown rice, not by one, not by, but tends. these men, bolstered by there numbers and racial righteousness took a possibility, in the night and the body returned to chicago unrecognizable. it was not just the bullet in the face or the hatchet splitting his head, separating eyeball om eyeball, or the force and jacket of 30 teeth from his mouth leaving only his two front teeth holding his time before the final droing of deathblow. this was from a people'of a ate, a natn that had never respected or ackwledge black people as humans and sacred souls. emmett till's body returned to

chicago, lockdown and a wooden box with abort under orders not to be open to a grieving mher whose heart had already been chped into pieces and smashed from her body confronted all who dare raise opposition to her seeing her son. upon viewing his tture battered, bloated mutilated, hacked and disfired body, she realized that this crimef imes cease to be personal. ceased to be just about her baby. this was a national killing and the nation should as quickly as possible witness the cowardly work of their christian sons. emmett till's mothe maiming, decided that her child murder was not to be hidden in a closed casket with insufficient cries of racism and combined with pious sermons on evil and evildoers. this mother demanded that the world see what the nation did to her child. to the credit of the johnny

johnson, publisher of jet magazine, photoaphs of young image-based appeared in the september 15, 1955, issue. people lined up at newsstands around the countryouy jet. and from that day, there was a new message in the nation. i heard the roar of black people as ike's sold my 30 issues of jet. i quickly vent to the brother at distributed them for more, but for the first time in history, all over the nation, thmagazine was sold out in less than 48 hours. emmett till's execution had touched black hearts. ricans born in america, now saw the end game. white supremacy. nationalism. rage. violence. and ignorant sent us this message from the hellhole of mississippi. now, apartheid america was public news. was state news, was national news, was world news because jet magazine for that week when its

convention, the black community nationwide putn muscle, shoes, and resistance. rthshaking was beginning. emmett till's murder helped inflame the movement and march for freedom. may be emmett till took up the memory. she didn't let hiseath become history's forgotten page. in alabama, a woman named rosa parks was quietly readying herself to give backbone to a nati defeat. her active if i heard our introduction to a new movement. martin luther king jr. the united states was in his, hour and his history. 's futube about to be rewritten. that's just a sore section from the book. and in the book -- [applause] >> this picture right here on the left, that's paul roberson.

and under it, i write hockey adopted paul rerson and wb devoid as cultural grandfathep. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. that was beautiful. [applause] >> we have 15 minutes for questions. you know the panelists. if you like you've can line up to my left and just direct your question to any author. stack all rht. first question. if you don't have a question, you would like to make a comment you can also come right up.

spirit while you are coming to the mic, let me just say that i think you'll have here in harlem, the harlem book best something you can go to with a smile on your face. it's very important that these cultural institutions and the structures are not only supported, but younow, carried from neighborhood to neighborhood. and all too often when you live in the midst of this come you don't realize how important it is and how critical it is, you see. and i just want you a to, you know, after the day is over, you go home, sit down and jot a note to max rodriguez and keep the chief and say thank you. to say thank you. i think it would be appreciated. >> thank you for that, haki. [applause]

>> i have a question i'm going to direct it initially to haki but the other panelists may want to speak to it as well. utah, haki, about the power in terms of jet magazine, in terms of awakening the concept of black america. upon the death and the killing of emmett till. but today, as you well know, jet magazine, ebony magazine, as in terms of johnson magazine is teetering to stay alive. so i would like you all to comment on the significance of economic development and institution building in terms of a sustaining the idea. right now in new york city with the challenges you have with the budget and impact that is having on the schomburg. so as we move things about,e move forward in terms of the

next-generation. how should we be preparing young people to think about taking the matter of the challenge that you'll imposed and what that means that issues of institutions and economic development. >> i will just be veryrepared one of the real problems i did what they said is that most young peopl most young black people don't have any idea who th are. if you don't know who you are, anybody can name you. [applause] >> anybody can name you. and this is w it's so important that all people, you, most certain black people, people of african ancestry, we have the healthy development. these institutions have to be essentially institutions about growth and development. our history isritil is very important that we just can't live back 5000 years ago. we have to understand it, move forward, and where are we going in the future that is what we're time to do in our institution as instructions. finally, if that's not done, what will happen and what has happened, is that the lowest

common denominator, we know the back roads, will become the leadership. and you will have ignorant peopleeing ignorant of others. so we have to be in t forefront of development in all areas of human evolution, you see. and finance is critical. that i think is one of our greatest weaess is, how do we begin to make money, not for money's sake but how do we make money in order to consume development of our community spirit third world press, one of our major problems, is how do we find capital to do cultural work, you see. which is not going to bring back a big return. [alause] >> this question is directed to haki. from detroit as well. i'm in education right ow studying leadership at columbia.

and the question i have for you is that when they go to the elementary level we see very few men. what can we do? >> i think as you become an ambassador, and this is critical. what we have done in chicago, and we have the same problem finding young man. i tell brothers the time, if you want an audience, get an undergraduate degree in education. but the problem is many of them do not want too and work for years. because university work is work. it not playdime. its work. so you become an ambassador. first within t context of your own family. see, all too often those of us who have h these pillars of education, we do not talk to her own family search. young brothe and young sisters, encouraging them to go to help them to universities. find those brothers first. and as an ambassador, you become the best teacher within the context ofhe university -- of

the schools, the elementary school that you are in. and as you move, also began move toward administration. we need men like you and women, men like you who essentially, i'm going to teach, always keep aand in the classroomut also understand how can i move this school to the next level. our flagship school, we have waiting lists are in the middle of the black community, we have a waiting list to get to that school, you see. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> onstar, i have another qution for brotheraki. in the area of charter studies, i'm a doctoral program in the cultural capital. these individus as a way to modify behior. child incentives is a new

version, psychology, we are looking at children a childhood. children in terms of development differed in, so we are finding now is how do we g the children's voice oftentimes the stories were lling espially shared about beg nine usually try to interpret what's around her. how do we get our children to write arcs i was talking -- i'm going down through the various things in the book fair and i say you know what, i see we have an appetite for certain things get how do we get our children to have an appetite for reading, learning, and writing? >> and i can answer these questions because that's what we been doing all my life. i could walk into your home and se exactly whereou culturally. first thing is i clean? is a clean? and i walked into the living room i want to know what's on the walter image of the walls

reflect you, reflector people, reflection or culture. and then i'm goi to your bookcase, if you've got a bookcase. what are you reading? because if you're reading, the children will be rding. do you know what i'm saying? [applause] >> you develop a culture. you develop a culture within the context of your own home. and then i'm going to your dvd cmllection and s what movies, especially the movies that are wrapped u in brown paper bags. what are you looking at my? and go to your cd question i trk collection. is this booty call musical great black music you are listening to. all this defined as. and you go to the children drew. getting back to your question. and what'sn their walls, darth vader, mickey mouse and donald duck. and you wonder why they're confused. [laughter] >> you wonder why they're confused or so we are one of the few people who let alien culture in our homes here a therefore defined as. and you cannot, you walk into almost every blackcomb 24/7 you

find the most dangerous monster of the 21st century, television, on 24/7. you know what i'm saying? i toasted all the time if you're going to stay you got to turn it off. you can't multitask it is did you can't multitask and read alice walker. you can't multitask and read more center to get multitask and read, new, richard wright. and so it becomes again the culture that we develop. my wife, doctor carol lee, is one of therightest and buy the most important educators in this country. my wife is the president of aer a., american research asciation. the largest body of resrchers in the world. out 25000 members. my wife dacia. [applause] >> my wife doctor kelly got her phd at the university chicago in three years. three years. when she walked off the stage and northwestern, grabbed her. she was also inducted into

national education academy about two years ago. there are only 225 in the world, people, members. shes one of the. she will have a workshop at little bit later on. go to her workshop and pulled her ide and she'll ask you questions much more aptly than i can. > all right. i would like to thank you for coming. i had a question. okay. stacked hi, how are you? high just had a question. you can answer pretty quickly i guess, but you authors found out about yourselves by writing biographs maybe upcoming, the biography you wrote for mr. weber and you know, what kk learned about writing about the godfather, mr. johnson. and even mr. ha madhubuti what u learned about writing this memoir, this autobiography of

yourself mver the first 21 years of your life, and how you came full circle by publishing the bookthat you have written. >> i keep going back to the first question in terms of what's happening with the newspapers. the development of that. and ask question terms of how to get our kids interested. one thing i would like to add that our nature of cognition, that is how we know in 2009 is quite different from how we know in, say10 years before. and so that what they know is so different. we've got to find ways in terms of how we use to get people to have a better sense of who they are. is my taken the whole question ofducation. and i think that is one of the challenges of the teachers, that u are teaching at one level. you are teaching one way of knowing and doing well folks,

these younger kids are listenin that's my take on that. so i thought i might mention that. what i learned aboutyself, well, i think what i learned about all people anwriting about weber is that we tend to lose and forget those persons who have contributed so much to own development. i think a few minutes ago i saw dr. benjamin canada on the street just sitting there. and i will wonder tammany people how much he had done for our own knowdge and no development. i don't know what kind of support he has now, but it seems to me that i've heard so much about writing about weber, this very great man, that he had done so much. here is a guy who think, and i didn't read because of my time, anticipated the two great heroes certainly, the rest of the world in the 19th century, one is

charles darwin, and the other course is in economics. john winsome was the tax almost from whom darwin learned how to stuff birds. you never hear about winsome, but darwin was there and they said that is what they want to learn about birds and stuff and going to south america. re is weber, who before came to talk about deficit spending and the need for government to intervene when of course private was not nished or choose a guy who enables contributions and they call w i became an economic, and we know nothing about him. pa of the struggle, but how do we go at the state make them alive and embracthem as our own.

[applae] >> thank you for that. >> all right. i am sorry, but our seson is over and i just like to urage you to do one thing. one commonality of all of us is the fact that we e booklovers. so i'm going to ask you to buy our books, go out there, walk in one part of the reet to the other, greet the authorq, thank the authors, and buy their books. thank you so much for coming. [applause] >> . . of thefrican expedition into the trojan war that begins at. >> but now we have the of 35 who is the authorf the book

hey lived before adam". in 2001 aft more than 11 years of research catherine discover >> katherine discovered a library of ancient stone inscriptions made by the subfamily of the nigerian tribes. these stones and marks are located in acrs nigeria. that discovery creat an access into the lost civilizations as nigeria. as ground breaking as the research found in john franklin's that came before columbus, they lived befe adam tries to place africa as the start of human civilization.

she will discuss in some depts, hey lived before adam." 'd like to fir of all address the significance of the what we hav done. we believe that our findings have expande the knowledge. we believe that our findings call for another look at the history of mankind. we believe that it is important that history be rewritten so

that africa's place, black africa's place innate will be shor the contrutions to black africans to the making of war civilization civilizations. what ourindings are about. before i begin my talk, let me first of all acknowledge the following, the first lady of the federal republic of nigeria for support she gives to research, a new vision. whom we, the citizen foundly call the boy king. foris contributions and his suort. and for air support for this

project and for the faith in my home state where intellectuals like me can function where academics and new ideas can thrive. the epics of the organization for power and the war presentation of the and put in the stamp of support on our new publication. i stand here today not just as myself alone, but as head of the team set up in 2004 on the united nations form of culture. the united nations forms of arts and culture is a program ofhe secretary of the uscd of which i happen to be the nigeria representive and ambassador. this has it in knowledge such as

dr. jay reback coo, an indian software engineer, specialist of the united nations forms of arts and culture. a senior culture officer in nigeria. and a flight art specialist and distinguished of manhattan college of new york. these are a few of it. those i will name. i myself am a professor of linguistics of african allture already studies. and i'm visiting professor at manhattan college, college of mary mount, all in new york state. this is my published book. and this series is is a result of this research project which originally began o precisely

the campus of manhattan college. therefore, on behalf of myself i press the gtitude to the department of the organization and to the west for international studies. for e support i received when i discovered and published the roots of african slave and american slave holder. in 1991, which the institutions granted me the honor of enjoying and support of the u.s. international visitor. the day before to another war title the grand poor of african item. still in books and ibraries. together, these two books make

up a total of 1450 pages. this is importance, the grand corp of african when it was published was presented to the world ol the 25th of september 2005 by the then president of nigeria, representative by the mister of culture and tourism. i am here on the invitation of the harlem book fair, the largest black book fair in the world. to present the book, its fiings, the prehistoric origins. the title is -- two things. this is ground breaking edition tocholarship. the first is a discovery and transcription of lost stone writings, of prehistoric africans. these stones located in southern

nigeria in a rural place had been attracted into internatnal attractions, but we were the first to see its a form of writing and crack some of its letters. another series of stone inscriptions called oka found in island which many linguists has been struggling with were often transcribed into an african language. some inscriptions were found in st western in usa. what we have found in the case of the inscribed of southern nigeria is thathey content two letters that were the foundation of form, a writing system used in mesopotamia or sue ma before 4,000b.c..

the let he and she the first and last of the old samirian oping to if i. by the majority of the letters on the stones are from indian language. as well as similar -- symbols they form the route of scientists in the world these include the cross, triangle, the circle andvery other know geometric shape. they are indig anitive of the stones and fine they were discovered in the forest where many were buried underound shows they were indigenous and they belong to the days of human his.

the first hans to inhabit the area. and tt there were invented by the first mother of human kind. they call this first mother shessa. she was the first one to have a child by pregnancy, and this is whom sin and death came into the war. just lehe tradion. written in an oping to if i that includes sue marian, and all of that. she is t same name which adam called eve in e biblical story of the creation. her yays and mouth form the hew brew letter of the first and highest. it represents the infinite.

there are over 300 of these stes in nigeria. another thing that's marked a turns point in our history was the discovery by a team of archaeolist. of these stone that they have access and others belong the time of 1.6 million b.c. to 500,000 b.c.. and of them walk in with some british members of the department of archaeology in '70s and discovered several books of nonpolished as we as polished picks and other implements in a place called -- in the zone in southeastern

nigeria. eir confion published a number of local journalist at the time was that home -- was the keyword of homie erect thus was the one sto shop to all of homoerectus that out of african took off to pop late the five continents of the globe. moly because it implements discovered all or the word all look like they were made in the factory. this was all the finding nf the archaeologist. and samples of words from a number of languages spoken in all five continents of the

world. what's severalther linguists have long suspected and completed that mankind -- as the hue brew bible says spoke one langua at the beginning. our comparave -- as in nigeria, egypt, turkey, indian, china, gece, united kingdom, north ameca, south america, including the greene -- greenland. in fact the two wars in plato's description were found to be in

some and many burden of proof found that sound to be directly ght from the language environment. so to where 90% of words used by adam and his household, especially names of the places. our research includes the origin and meanings ofymbols all over the world. in these we found that hebrew bible and christian bible called of knowledge. whenever he looked, we all of this confirming the claimed that has been conducted by the research in four leading universities here in u.s. that all mankind came from africa, that even adam were black africans.

however, it had believe that adam and eve were descended from east africa. this is the name of the first lay it have i my state. who is actually from the home of the man. who was the sister of eve and adam. it was not lucy, but rather her who was the ancestor out of africa migrations. the resech conduct lead by and reveale that the bones of the ancestors live in the nigeria basins, seven million

years predating lucy by hoping to form. this again con firms what the shows tell us, that we do not come from anywhere. that we are -- that we are a result of revolution. rst, people and oral traditions confirm the findings of genesis that by 280,000 b.c., human evolution was interpreted anddam a hybrid wa created through the process of genetic ars. however, our findings reveal that the creation of adam was a dwnward plan on the evolutionary matter because it no longer hold a wholesome all over africa. ancient reports oral and written traditions maintain.

and homoerectus people that there was moving roc and mountains and changing rivers. adam lost all of that when his bread was shoved out byhose who made him, created him. the direct senders of homoerectus. it was they who founded and sustned. when they continued to function until they were driven out. it was then that evil language and culture to all places. therefore, i have -- we said that t things following off the plan. would you read about -- to whom

this publication is for. to the falling apart not only of the history but of the prehistoric ancestors of mankind. adam who was taken from his nigerian ancestors and moved and changed and alters and made to be less than his ancestry. the theories of evolutionism, as well as creationism. this played a part in the developpal species. that indeed mankind is one,nd the black africans are the oldest ancestors andhe first to be called homo. at the lost paradise of e den

was an african location. and the solutions to the problems createdhrough the fall of adam and to be sought is in black africa. thank you so much. god bless you. [applause] okay. sorry. we're going to open up with the floor for questions if anyone has questions. and i'm there's two mics. there's a mic on this side. feel free to step up to the mic and have any questions that you have this afternoon. don't be shy.

[inaudible conversation] >> i find your research interestg in terms of the -- >> excuse me for the benefit of th c-span audience, it will be much better if you stepped to the mic so everyone can hear the queson. that's the mic right there. >> all right. hello. that's good. i lice that. my name is dominik, i'm an architect, also a professor at the university of new york. i find your infmation to be very, very interesting in essence. the reason why is because the are stories that we have all been listening to and hearing for the past centuries. and most of the stories that we've been listening to were

certainly more of what we call folk tale. and at the times when we're not educated in terms of the process of reading some documentation in regards to whether it's beauty or whether it's about the existence of mankind or the existence quali and my question to is that how does that book pertain to they live before adam defined the stories of the bible itself o the bibly tech in a sense? >> well, we've spoke about the beginnings of human kind. we've spoken about evolution and then creationism. it's clear where adam falls into

that story. there is a science and there is religion. religion dealing with issues of faith. and mostly we don't deal with issues of faith when we do research. because we believe that stories in the bible, for example, as well as in some of the scripture s unlike what you call folk tales and oral tce they are condensed information. condensed in such a way that the certainsre there, but the detas are not often there. in the case of the findings and the the -- how it relates to the 2 280,000 years event whendam

went suddenly homo sapiens is different from his ancestor homo eructus. and withouthe growthhat would have permitted that. this showed that something happened, someone affected in the process and interpreted it. and so the story we have in the bible is actually the story of the bible is process whereby a man and a woman who used to be naked and didn't know how to farm or dn't know -- they didn'to it by the process of sex suddenly change. and whatnot. so it is -- that's the point

where evolution -- where creationism crosres the path of evolution. so that's all i can say at this point. [applae] >> dr. acholonu, my name is steven thompson, my question is e region where you found the stone inscriptions, would that have been the region where the nuke culture was located? now when i say nuke, i'm spelling it with a nok, would they have been somehow related? >> yes. the answer is yes. because between 9,000 and 5,000 b.c. we discovered there was a

thriving civilluation in -- civilization in the area. it was enveloped much of nigeria and the camerons and some environments. it's center for nok. it aears to be a slight information that was torn and removed for us for -- so to say. >> thank you. that's about all the time that we have for questions right now. we're going to taking a short ten-minute braak. the next author cued up and ready to go at 12:10 with author dana kennedy. relax for a few moments, we'll be back in about 10 minutes. [applause]

[inaudible conversation] >> can we get started please? good morning. young america is t the -- for

more information i urge you all to go to www.yef.org. and now for the moderator. dr. lee edwards in a distinguished fello an adjunct professor of politics, and chaian of the victims of memorial foundations which deck indicated in the 2007. he's the author of 20 books including biographies of ronald reagan, barry, history of the american and the heritage foundation and it worse and translated into chinese, japanese, swedish, and french. he was a fellow at institute of politics at the school at harvard. he's a past president of the philadelphia society and has been an fellow with the hoover institution. he is also on many television

and radio programs such as the "wall street journal," and hit upcoming book is a biography of william f. jr. he has a bachelors in english in duke and graduate work in paris in addition to phd at the catholic university and he currently resides in california with his wife ann who assists him. i ask you to help welcome him, dr. lee edwards. [applause] >> well, thank you patrick. and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. it's a beautiful day at washington. and a greatay to be alive. especially if you are a young conservative. we're sitting he on this stage and you sittinghere in the

audience, we agree on one thing. books can change a life and even the course of history. they certainly made a profound difference in the life of ronald reagan. in mid october of 1965 my wife ann and i spent two days traveling with reagan in southern california. when he was considering whether to run for governor of that state. at the end of the second day reagan took us up the road to his hom in pacific overlooking los angeles to serve us some ice tea and cookies. he and nancy were in the kitchen and i walk over to the bookcases in their library den and beg examining the titles. they were works